Russians plan to unite foreigners recruited by the FSB into one "news agency"

The Kremlin plans to create a new “news agency” in the temporarily occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, inviting FSB recruits to work there, reports the National Resistance Center.

"Usually, those are outliers who spread conspiracy theories, support radical political movements and talk about the happy life in the TOT. Moscow plans to unite the latter into a 'single news agency'. It is presented as a private initiative, namely as the brainchild of a known Russian special services employee, Christelle Neant. The French woman has been living in Donetsk since 2016 and has worked with the 'MGB DNR' (essentially a sub-unit of FSB in the TOT) for years. She claims to be an 'independent war correspondent,'" notes the NRC.

The "news agency" is supposed to be funded within the presidential program "New Media Workshop". Neant basically proposes to use a dictator's money to create an "agency of independent international journalists."

As IMI reported, the Myrotvorets website was discovered to include the names of Bulgarian journalists and officials. Earlier this week, a European Parliament member from Bulgaria, Elena Yoncheva, noticed that she was in the database. As a reporter, Yoncheva has traveled to North Korea, "filmed documentaries about the events in Kyiv and the situation in the east of Ukraine" in 2013 and 2014, and in 2017 she atteneded the conference "Friends of Crimea Forum" in occupied Yalta.

"Myrotvorets" also lists the names of the Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, who spreads fakes about the "biolabs in Ukraine", and the current deputy chair of the parliament from the Bulgarian Socialist Party, Kristian Vigenin. The latter allegedly refuses to back the supply of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine and "did not take a firm stance or show clear support to any of the parties" during the annexation of Crimea in 2014.